Impact of Consumption of Two Street Foods (Tuna Garba and Rice with Eggplant Sauce) on Vital Organs in the Wistar Rat (Rattus norvegicus)

Abstract

Street foods are seen as a public health problem due to lack of infrastructure and basic services, difficulty in controlling the plethora of street food sales operations due to their diversity, their mobility, and their temporary nature. The objective of this study is to show the impact of the consumption of two street foods (Garba with tuna and rice with eggplant sauce) consumed in Côte d'Ivoire on the health of the Ivorian population. To contribute to the nutritional and health security of the population, the consumption of these dishes has been demonstrated in young Wistar rats (Rattus norvegicus). Thus, we hypothesized that the consumption of these street foods would have a deleterious effect on consumer health. However, five days 20 young rats of male and female sexes aged 50±5 days and weighing an average of 55±5 g were acclimatized and fed on a formulated isocaloric diet rich in herring fish (Clupea harengus) animal protein. After the acclimatization phase, four batches of rats of five rats per cage were fed respectively with diets (DWP, CDHF, GWTF and RES). The results showed that juvenile rats fed the CDHF and RES diet gained a lot of weight (5.66 ± 0.34 g/d and 5.16 ± 0.58 g/d) while those fed the GWTF diet had a progressive, slow weight gain. (2.32 ±0.23 g/d) and batch of rats fed without protein (DWP) observed considerable weight loss (-1.07±0.06 g/d). In terms of biological value, the results demonstrate that rats fed the RES diet have a higher protein availability (84.23 ±0.02%) than rats fed the GWTF diet (54.31 ±0.06 %). It follows from this analysis that it is necessary to combine GWTF with other protein-rich foods to compensate for the nutritional deficits caused by its ingestion. In young rats fed experimental diets, biometric research on vital organs (heart, liver, spleen and kidneys) revealed no abnormalities.